


Of Secrets And Confessions

by Miya_Morana



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-21
Updated: 2012-11-21
Packaged: 2017-11-19 04:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/569261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miya_Morana/pseuds/Miya_Morana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Strange things are happening in Beacon Hills, but Danny refuses to let his brain go to Buffy-esque places, because he believes in science and reasonable explanations. When his friends are ready, they will tell him what's going on with them, he knows that. Meanwhile, he realizes that Stiles might be more than meets the eye as they start to become friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Secrets And Confessions

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "confession" prompt on my [teenwolf_bingo card](http://miya-tenaka.livejournal.com/161222.html).

Danny’s silently cursing Joe as he climbs over the wall. Joe, who had promised he’d drive him home when they got out of The Jungle, but who had instead disappeared after spending an hour dancing with some hot guy. Danny had hoped he’d come back after a quick fuck in the alley behind the club, but when he got tired of waiting and went out looking for him he saw the car was missing. It’s the last time he goes out when his car is in the shop.

It’s not such a long walk back to his house, really, Beacon Hills is a small town after all, but Danny doesn’t especially enjoy walking alone for fifty minutes at 2 am. Which is why he’s cutting through the park even though it’s close for the night. This’ll save him at least fifteen minutes, maybe even twenty, and there are less chances of some weird guys trying to pick him up that way.

He’d forgotten exactly how dark it was in the park at night. Since it closes at 9, the city saves money by turning off the lights, and Danny has to rely on the moon when it peaks out from behind the clouds to see the path. There are leaves rustling around him and branches creaking. He hopes it’s just the wind, and not some wild animals having found their way here. 

Danny picks up his pace when he hears what sounds disturbingly like a howl. It’s probably just a dog, there are no wolves in California after all. Still, when an other howl rings through the park, much closer to him than the first one, his heart starts beating faster. 

There’s something under the trees, following him. He can hear it breathe, catches a glimpse of yellow eyes when the clouds part long enough to let some moonlight through. When he hears a low growl, Danny starts running.

The thing takes chase. He can hear it after him, growling, snarling, and when he looks back all he can see is a dark shape, bright yellow eyes and the gleam of white, sharp teeth. If it’s a wild dog, it’s bigger than any dog Danny’s ever seen. He runs faster, silently thanking Finstock for all the suicide runs at practice.

The path forks out and Danny takes a sharp turn to the right. He skids to a halt when the creature suddenly appears in front of him, growling menacingly, its red eyes on him. Wait, red eyes? Danny was sure they were yellow... The answering growl from behind him clears things up: he’s trapped between what must be two very large and probably enraged wild dogs. This is so not good.

He yelps when someone grabs his hand and pulls him away just as the red-eyed creature lunges. There are snarling noises and the sounds of a fight behind him, but the stranger drags him away from it. They run until they reach the fenced East Gate of the park and the light from the street flows through the bars. That’s when Danny sees his face.

“Stiles?”

Stiles finally lets go of his hand and bends over, catching his breath. He looks up at Danny and makes a face.

“Lucky I got to you before you became a chew toy, eh?” he says, trying for a light tone and failing by a long shot.

“What are you doing here?” Danny asks, because Stiles kind of lives in the opposite side of town, and also, it’s the middle of the night.

“I could ask you the same question?”

“I was walking home,” Danny says, crossing his arms over his chest. He raises an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Stiles tries, half-heartedly. “Thought I’d take a walk, you know, in a dark park, all by myself...”

Danny sighs. He should know better than to expect a straight answer from Stiles. He’s been involved in too many shady things lately, him and Scott and Allison, as well as those guys in leather jackets, and even Jackson and Lydia. Suddenly, Danny feels extremely left out. It’s not a feeling he’s really used to, and he doesn’t like it.

A chorus of howls rings through the night and Danny startles, looking around even though they seemed to be far away. When he looks back at Stiles, the other teen is biting his lower lip nervously. He doesn’t look as scared as he should, though, given that they’d just escaped some horrible animal attack. He’s about to raise that up when Stiles’s phone starts ringing and Stiles flicks it open as fast as humanly possible.

“Did you get it?” he asks without any form of greeting. “Good. Yeah, I got him out. Can’t really talk right now. Can you get a ride home with Derek? Oh, right, of course. See you tomorrow in class then.”

“Was that Scott?” Danny asks with a frown.

“Yeah, long story,” Stiles says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Hey, my Jeep’s parked somewhere around here, I can drive you home if you want? It’s not very safe to be out here all alone.”

Danny should point out that Stiles said he too was out here all alone, though it’s clear that was a lie and at least Scott and this mysterious Derek had been with him. He should demand an explanation for their presence here, or should at least ask Stiles if he’d gotten a good look at the animals that attacked them. But he’s just too tired to deal with any of the crappy lies Stiles would probably come up with, so instead he just nods.

Stiles is thin enough to be able to squeeze between the bars of the gate, though he manages to trip when he gets through and almost falls head-first on the sidewalk. Danny has to climb up the stone wall again, and he curses when he cuts his palm on a sharp rock jutting out.

“Are you okay?” Stiles asks when Danny slides down on the other side of the wall.

“It’s nothing,” he says, waving it away, but Stiles grabs his hand and inspects the cut under the orange light of the street lamp.

“Could get infected,” he muses, then drags Danny toward his Jeep without releasing his hand. “I have a first aid kit in there, let me clean it up.”

Danny follows, slightly surprised by this effective-looking Stiles. He’s so used to trying to ignore his antics that he hadn’t really noticed when Stiles stopped being nothing else than a giant spaz. Oh, he’s still Stiles, but there’s something a little bit more mature about him than even just six months ago.

In lieu of ‘first-aid kit’, Stiles actually drags a huge dufflebag from under the Jeep’s backseat. It’s filled with bandages and and jars of strange herbs (“alternative medicine”, Stiles vaguely explains, and Danny really hopes it doesn’t mean ‘illegal drugs’). Stiles digs around in it until he finds a bottle of antisepctics. He does a quick job of cleaning Danny’s hand and puts a small band-aid over the cut.

“Thank you,” Danny says, looking at his hand but thinking of when Stiles grabbed it earlier and dragged him out of harm’s way.

“No problem,” Stiles shrugs, sliding the dufflebag back under the seat.

When he sits on the passenger seat and Stiles starts the car, Danny thinks for a short instant that the drive is going to be filled with awkward silence, what with Stiles being all mysterious about why he was in the park and clearly not wanting to talk about what happened. He should have known better. Stiles fills the silence with mindless blabber about school and finals and plans for summer vacation, and before Danny knows it they made it to his house.

“So,” Stiles says, absently tapping his fingers on the wheel. “See you Tuesday in Chem?”

“Or around at school,” Danny shrugs. He opens his door and steps out of the car, but then he turns back to Stiles. “Thank you again.”

“It was nothing,” Stiles goofily waves away, but his smile seems pleased and sincere.

Danny smiles back and closes the Jeep’s door. He waits until Stiles drives off to turn around and walk back to the house, stifling a yawn. He’s still going to kill Joe for ditching him the next time he sees the guy.

***

It’s a few days later when he sees Stiles’s cousin dropping off Isaac to school. He had no idea they even knew each other, and he can’t help but think it slightly suspicious, a hot guy like Miguel with the sweet-faced turned bad-ass Isaac.

“What are you looking at?” Jackson asks, startling him.

“Um, nothing,” Danny lies, looking away from the sleek black car driving off.

Jackson makes a face that clearly states he doesn’t believe him, and Danny shrugs. They walk to their lockers, Jackson complaining about how Finstock still hasn’t restored him to his role of only captain of the lacrosse team, since he’s better than McCall again now. Danny listens and vaguely hums in agreement, because that’s what friends do and because there’s no real heat in Jackson’s voice. 

He’s not even surprised when Jackson nods hello at Scott and Stiles when they pass them in the hallway. They’ve been doing that a lot lately, and it’s not even a “Lydia and Allison are friends so we have to be mildly polite to each other” thing, what with Scott and Allison not being together anymore. Strange things are happening in Beacon Hills, animal attacks aside.

“Hey Danny,” Stiles grins enthusiastically, and Danny waves back with a small smile.

Stiles seems to be in a great mood, talking to Scott excitedly in what he thinks is a hushed tone but actually carries enough for Danny to know he’s going on about that werewolf game he must have been playing a lot lately. Danny takes his eyes off Stiles and turns to open his locker, but he’s shoved aside by Kitty. 

There are very few people Danny doesn’t like, and Kitty’s one of them. She’s the head cheerleader of the school and the proud real-life equivalent of every mean girl cliché from high school drama tv shows, and currently she’s trying to hit on Jackson even though everybody knows him and Lydia are back together.

Jackson being Jackson, he can’t help but flirt back, basking in the attention even though he knows Lydia will rip him apart when she hears about it. Danny rolls his eyes at the stupid double-entendre lines Kitty serves his best friend. 

He’s not expecting her to shriek when she opens her own locker. To be honest, he’s not expecting the swarm of tiny spiders that crawl out of said locker either, dozens, maybe hundreds of them, so many it’s a wonder they could all have fitted in the overstuffed locker. 

There’s shouting and running away all around them. When they don’t stop coming Danny closes the locker door, but there’s a force trying to open it from inside and Jackson has to help him keep it shut, both of them doing their best to ignore the spiders crawling over their feet. There’s a crashing noise, and then someone is killing the spiders with a fire extinguisher. 

Danny looks up from his feet to find Stiles spraying the arachnids. Scott and Boyd are running from the the other side of the hallway with two other extinguishers and join him. The three of them manage to get all the spiders and helpfully spray the people who had the things crawling on them. Panic recedes and the hallway turns quite, everyone staring at the pool of dead spiders on the floor.

“Ugh, because I didn’t already have enough horrible things fueling my nightmares,” Stiles complains, dropping his extinguisher down. “What about the ones in there?”

He points at where Danny and Jackson are still keeping the locker door shut, even though it doesn’t seem to be trying to open on its own any more. Scott comes closer, extinguisher in hand, and the spiders crunch ominously under his feet. He aims carefully at the locker, and on his signal, Jackson lets go and Danny opens the door.

Nothing happens.

“Huh,” Scott says, echoing Danny’s thoughts, as they stare at the contents of the locker.

There’s nothing in there other than books and hairspray products. Scott comes closer, reaches inside and picks up a small fake spider made out of straw. Stiles steals it from him and looks at it closely, in deep thought. He doesn’t seem to like the conclusion he comes to, whatever that is. 

Personally, Danny refuses to let his brain go to Buffy-esque places, because he believes in science and reasonable explanations. This is a practical joke of epic and disgusting proportions, nothing else. He takes his books out of his own locker and gets to class, because he doubts Harris will accept “I was attacked by a swarm of spiders” as an excuse to be late.

Stiles _does_ show up late to class, and as expected Harris tells him there’s no point coming if he can’t bother to be on time. Stiles groans and leaves, slamming the door behind him.

***

There’s another incident at lunch when the captain of the swimming team discovers his sandwich isn’t filled with delicious beef but with worms. He screams and runs toward the toilets, ends up throwing up in a bin before he gets there. It pretty much ruins everyone’s appetite. 

When Brian Delport, a popular Senior known for how frequently he changes girlfriends, runs down the hall in panic, his gorgeous black hair falling off behind him, Danny starts to worry he or one of his friends might be the next victim of these attacks. That’s why he grabs the seat next to Stiles in English.

“Hey,” Stiles smiles, surprised.

“Hey,” Danny replies, taking his notebook out. “So, I was wondering if I could help you guys out.”

“What are you talking about?” Stiles asks with a slightly nervous smile.

“I know you, Stiles, I know there’s no way you and Scott aren’t trying to figure out who’s behind these, er, _things_ , for lack of a better word. And, you know, all the victims this far seem to be popular people, so I’d hate for something bad to happen to Scott or Jackson.”

“Scott doesn’t have anything to worry about,” Stiles waves off, dropping his voice lower and opening his book. “So far the victims have only been popular jerks.”

Okay, Danny can see his point. And he won’t say anything about how Stiles didn’t mention that Jackson, on the other hand, was far from safe. 

“So you _are_ looking into it,” he says instead.

“Hey, you know me, once my curiosity gets peaked I’m unstoppable. Nothing can stop me. Don’t you forget that.”

Stiles grins at him, and Danny rolls his eyes, but he can’t help smiling back, just a little.

“Do you know anyone who has a reason to be mad at them?” Stiles asks, not even bothering to take notes of what Mrs. Talbot is saying about Shakespear’s life.

Instead, he’s chewing on his pen and making origami birds out of a sheet from his notebook. Danny shrugs.

“I honestly don’t know anyone who hasn’t been pissed off at Kitty at some point. Half the girls in school have been dumped by Delport, and David, the captain of the swim team? He’s a bully. I’m afraid at least half of the school is suspect. I think the way to find out who’s behind this is to find out who had the knowledge, means and opportunity to pull these things off.”

“Hmmm,” Stiles replies, frowning. “I suppose something like this would require some _supplies_. I should make a few phone calls.”

Danny’s eyes grow wide when he sees Stiles take his phone out of his pocket, and he grabs his arm, makes him hide the phone under the table.

“What?” Stiles asks, and Danny looks nervously around to check Mrs. Talbot hasn’t noticed them.

“Maybe after class?”

“Oh,” Stiles breathes out, like he’s only now remembering they are, in fact, at school. “Yeah, right. Thanks.”

Danny shakes his head, once again amazed at the way Stiles’s brain works. He goes back to taking notes, and for a few minutes it looks like Stiles is going to do the same and they can get through this dreadfully boring class in silence. He’s almost relieved when Stiles gives up on his barely-there notes.

“So, did I miss anything important in Chem this morning?”

***

Danny’s about to admit Stiles probably blew him off when the doorbell finally rings. Stiles said he had things to do after school, and Danny saw him leave with Isaac, Boyd and Erica packed in his Jeep and Scott following them on his bike, but they had decided to meet up at Danny’s ‘later’ to work on the Chem assignment Harris had given them, since they’re lab partners.

And sure enough, when Danny opens the door Stiles’s there, standing awkwardly in the half-shadow of the porch. 

“Hey,” he says, making a face. “I know it’s late, sorry. If you prefer, we can do that another day...”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Danny assures him, stepping away to let him through. “Come in.”

“Cool!” Stiles grins, walking inside.

That’s when Danny notices the band-aid on his forehead and the beginning of a bruise on his temple.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Oh, that?” Stiles shrugs with a smile. “We were having a nice little chat with Emily, but then I had a bad encounter with a wall. I’m good though, and she won’t be going around sp...pranking people who pissed her off anymore.”

Danny raises his eyebrows, slightly surprised.

“Emily Cooper?”

“Nah, Emily Santiago,” Stiles explain as they climb the stairs towards Danny’s room. “Which, really, we should have seen coming. It’s always the quiet ones.”

“So, no risk of you turning into a vengeful prankster then?” Danny chuckles, pushing his bedroom door open to let Stiles in.

“Huh? Oh, haha, very funny,” Stiles mocks sarcastically and Danny rolls his eyes, closing the door behind them.

They get to work, and once Danny manages to veer Stiles’s mind from Emily Cooper to chemistry they actually make very good progress on their project. Stiles’s leg is jittering as they work, and his knee brushes against Danny’s every now and then, but Danny’s afraid if he calls Stiles on it then Stiles’s going to get distracted again, so he doesn’t.

The knock on the door makes them both jump in their chair. Their knees knock together and Stiles, who had been sitting on the edge of his seat, kind of half falls over. The only reason he doesn’t end up on the floor is because Danny grabs his elbow. Stiles’s face ends up mere inches from Danny’s, red and flustered.

“Mom wants to know if your _friend_ is staying for dinner,” Sarah says, head poking out from where she’s holding the door ajar. 

She’s grinning at them and it’s obvious that she thinks she’s interrupted more than just studying. Stiles’s face gets even redder, his flush spreading down his neck, and Danny refuses to think of it as _adorable_ , because this is Stiles for God’s sake, Stiles who’s been in love with Lydia for years, Stiles who’s kind of a giant, awkward nerd.

Stiles leans back in his own chair and rubs his neck, nervously, avoiding everyone’s eyes.

“Wow, I had no idea it was this late,” he starts babbling. “I should probably go, I wouldn’t want to impose or anything, really...”

“Don’t sweat it!” Sarah says, her grin growing even larger. “Mom always makes too much lau lau anyway.”

When Stiles repeats “Lau lau?” with that curious look in his eyes, Danny already knows how this is going to end.

“You’ve never had Hawaiian food?” Sarah asks and of course when Stiles shakes his head she declares, “That’s it, you’re staying, no argument!” and disappears from the doorway.

“Danny, please tell me I didn’t just agree to eat something incredibly bizarre that no one who didn’t grow up on the stuff can’t actually swallow?”

“Technically, you didn’t agree to anything,” Danny says with a small smirk. “My sweet baybe sister took that choice away from you.”

“Danny!” Stiles whines, but Danny’s having too much fun watching him squirm with anguish to put him out of his misery just yet.

***

Dinner is going well and Stiles is actually grilling his mother for her lau lau recipe –it would seem Stiles can cook, or at least _theoretically_ knows how to cook, it’s hard to say– when Sarah randomly asks them for how long they’ve been dating. 

Danny’s fork freezes half-way to his mouth, but next to him Stiles actually chokes on his mouthful of fish, and Danny doesn’t know if he should pat him on the back to help him cough it out, but Stiles holds out his hand. He drinks half of his water, coughs a little bit more, then awkwardly wipes his mouth with his napkin.

“I’m not... We’re not... Why would you think that?!” Stiles flails at Sarah.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah apologizes, and she seems to mean it. “I just thought, earlier in your room...”

“Stiles is straight, Sarah,” Danny tells her sternly. “Stop trying to pair me up with every pretty boy who happens to be my friend.” It had been awkward enough when she’d decided he and Jackson were meant to be.

“Er, actually I’m not...” Stiles starts, then his head snaps towards Danny. “Wait, you think I’m pretty?”

He looks stunned, and Danny rolls his eyes, remembering that day when Stiles kept asking him if he was attractive to gay guys.

“Stop fishing for compliments,” he tells him, turning back to his food, because he really doesn’t need to develop another crush on a straight guy, and if Stiles keeps looking at him like he’s the first person to ever pay him a compliment, well, that’s not going to end well.

“Okay,” Stiles breathes out.

The silence is awkward for all of one minute before Stiles starts babbling again, about the most random things going through his mind. The rest of the meal goes smoothly, and even though Sarah keeps giving them looks she’s apparently unwilling to risk killing Stiles with food and doesn’t say anything else. 

Stiles helps out clearing the table and ends up with a copy of his mom’s lau lau recipe and an invitation to come over on Friday night to try her loco moco. For a moment, Danny’s about to joke that his mom is trying to seduce Stiles with food, until she says, almost casually, that if his dad’s not on shift he should come too. Danny’s not sure how he feels about this. Judging by Stiles’s perplexed face, he isn’t the only one.

“So, um, it’s late,” Stiles says as they’re making their way back to Danny’s room. “I should probably go home.”

“Oh, sure, okay. We can finish this on Friday I guess,” Danny shrugs with a tentative smile.

He helps Stiles get his books and notes into his bag, then walks him to the front door. Stiles stops on the way to poke his head into the living room and thank Danny’s mom again for the dinner, then he stands awkwardly on the porch, twisting his hands like there’s something he’d like to say, but whatever it is for once he keeps his mouth shut.

“So, see you at school then?” he says instead, with a strange waggle of eyebrows.

“Yeah. Good night Stiles.”

“Good night,” Stiles replies, shaking his head slightly.

Danny waits until Stiles’s Jeep disappears around the street corner to close the door.

***

The rest of the week is thankfully quiet, well, as quiet as life in a high school can be, what with all the teenage drama. Somehow Nathalie Davenport throwing her lunch tray at her boyfriend when she finds out he cheated on her with her best friend doesn’t seem like a huge thing, especially when Danny still has nightmares about the spiders.

Which means there is really no reason for how irritated Jackson is all Friday. When they have lunch with everyone, Danny notices that Jackson’s not the only one: Scott, Isaac, Boyd and Erica keep snapping at each other and at everyone else. He leans towards Stiles, who’s shoving curly fries in his mouth like they’re the best food on earth.

“What’s gotten into them?” he asks in a low voice, watching Jackson _growl_ at Erica.

“Just the full moon,” Stiles shrugs, then freezes like he’s just let out some big secret. He sounds a bit more tense when he grins and continues, “You know, it makes everyone on edge.”

Danny squints at him, but Stiles just keeps smiling and steals one of his fries. Danny pushes his suspicion at the back of his mind, because the conclusions he’s jumping to are just ridiculous, and he swats Stiles’s hand away from his plate. Stiles pouts, and Danny rolls his eyes and pushes his plate towards him with a sigh.

***

Danny is waiting for Stiles by his Jeep, since they agreed they’d get to Danny’s together after school, when the sleek black Camaro pulls up next to it. Stiles’s cousin gets out of the car and glares at him. Danny gulps, remembering what the man looks like with his shirt off, but he smiles and nods hello at him.

“You’re Miguel, right?” Danny asks, awkward, because Miguel’s still glaring at him like he’s some kind of intruder. “We kind of met when you were staying at Stiles’s?”

“I remember,” Miguel replies gruffly. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for Stiles. We’re studying at my place.”

Miguel nods curtly, then leans against the hood of his car, waiting. Danny starts wondering if he should say something else, maybe ask him what _he_ ’s doing here, but that’s when Isaac, Boyd and Erica show up.

“Get in the car,” Miguel tells them, and Erica rolls her eyes but follows Boyd on the back seat while Isaac claims the passenger seat.

“It was nice seeing you again?” Danny tries, and Miguel nods again as he slips back into his car.

Stiles and Scott show up as the Camaro drives off.

“Hey Danny!” Scott calls, smiling.

He looks more relaxed than he had at lunch, though he’s almost thrumming with energy.

“You two have fun tonight,” he says, clapping Stiles and Danny on the shoulder before grabbing his bike.

“You too, dude,” Stiles tells him. “Don’t let Derek boss you around too much.”

Scott shrugs, making a face. “You know how he gets,” he says. “See you tomorrow on Skype?”

“Sure,” Stiles grins.

They wave him off and get into the Jeep.

“You know, if your cousin continues picking up and dropping off jailbait teenagers at school, people are going to talk,” Danny says, only half-joking.

“My cousin?” Stiles frowns at the mirror as he backs out from the parking spot.

“Yeah, your cousin Miguel. He dropped off Isaac the other day, and right now he just picked him up along with Boyd and Erica.”

“But I don’t have any…Oh my God!” Stiles steps on the breaks in the middle of the parking lot and turns to face Danny. “Um, I might have a small confession to make. Miguel’s not really my cousin. Actually, his name’s not Miguel either. And I’d really, _really_ appreciate it if you don’t mention that he was in my bedroom when my dad joins us for dinner. Or, like, ever?”

“What?” Danny frowns, looking at the way Stiles is almost squirming in his seat and pleading with his eyes. “Why? What was he doing in your room? And please don’t serve me a line about him being your secret boyfriend, because we both know that would be a lie.”

“Hey, I could totally score a hot guy like him!” Stiles protests. “You said I was pretty!”

“No, you couldn’t, because you’re straight, Stiles.”

“Um, dude, just because I’m not gay doesn’t automatically make me straight. There is such a thing as bisexuality, you know.”

Danny blinks, because he wasn’t expecting this. Like, at all. Stiles bites his lower lip and puts his eyes back on the road, starting to drive again. Danny blinks once more. He’s pretty sure Stiles isn’t making up some tall tale again.

“So, yeah, I guess that’s another confession I just made. Ha,” Stiles says, still looking at the road. “It’s funny, I never felt like I was hiding it or anything, but I think you’re the first one I sort of honestly told and who didn’t assume I was joking.”

“I’m sorry,” Danny replies, softly.

“For what?” Stiles asks, throwing him a surprised glance.

“For pushing you off when you asked me questions? I should have known better.”

“Not your fault,” Stiles shrugs. “Our whole society works on the straight-until-proven-otherwise principle.”

“So, this guy?” Danny asks after a pause. “The one that isn’t your cousin? Did the two of you…?”

Stiles starts laughing, almost hysterically, once again taking Danny by surprise.

“Oh, dude, sorry, it’s not even that funny,” Stiles apologizes with a grin. “The answer is no, God, absolutely not. I mean, okay, Derek’s hot, but I’m not even sure we’re actually friends _now_ and back then I was still pretty terrified of him.”

“You didn’t look that terrified to me,” Danny comments. “Bossing him around like that.”

“Yeah, well, I still can’t believe he didn’t rip off my head for that. Anyway, please don’t mention I had Derek Hale hiding from the police in my bedroom, okay?”

“What the hell are you involved in?” Danny wonders out loud. “No, I don’t want to know. Your secret’s safe with me.”

“Cool, thanks,” Stiles breathes out, looking genuinely relieved.

If he’s completely honest with himself, Danny actually wants to know. He’s getting tired of being left in the dark, and this Derek guy is _obviously_ a big part of whatever’s going on, he’s sure of that. But he also knows there’s no use pushing people when they don’t want to talk. You only end up pushing them away from you.

So Danny won’t mention it. He’ll keep acting as if his friends aren’t involved in something huge, as if his best friend isn’t hiding anything from him, and hopefully one day they’ll tell him. He just prays it’s nothing to do with drugs. Or gangs. Though he really can’t see Jackson or Scott (or even Stiles, really) involved into gang activity. Plus, this is Beacon Hills, not Chicago.

Still, he thinks he might start to look into things on his own, just to be sure his friends are safe.

***

Stiles is distracted. It’s obvious, from the way he keeps looking up from their work, the way he doodles in the margin of his notes, the way he avoids Danny’s inquisitive eyes, the way Danny has to call his name every now and then when his mind drifts off. They plow through their project, but Danny’s doing most of the work and it’s kind of exhausting to try and keep Stiles focused.

“What is it?” he asks eventually, putting his pen down on the table.

“What’s what?” Stiles asks, looking slightly like a deer caught in the headlight.

“Whatever’s on your mind that’s keeping you from finishing our project tonight?”

“It’s nothing,” Stiles waves his hand. “I’m just not in the mood for Chem?”

“Stiles,” Danny says, putting a hand on Stiles’s knee to still his jittery leg.

Stiles stares at his hand, and Danny takes it off.

“Sorry, I just… Sometimes I worry about them. I know they’ll be fine, but lately it’s felt like Beacon Hills was built on a Hellmouth, if you know what I mean.”

Danny shakes his head. “I know we’ve been having a lot of strange animal attacks, including, damn, last week, but unless ‘they’ –and I’m assuming you mean Scott and the leather squad– plan on hanging out in the woods all night, they’ll be just fine.”

Stiles gives him a half-smile.

“I know,” he says, picking up his pen. “We should finish this before my dad shows up for dinner. Please tell me your mom won’t put the moves on him in front of us?”

“God I hope not!” Danny replies, slightly horrified at the thought. “I know your dad is hot, but I so don’t need to see that.”

“I didn’t hear you say that, tell me I didn’t hear you say my dad is… ugh!”

Danny rolls his eyes. “What can I say, it runs in the family,” he says, only realizing afterwards that he is, in fact, kind of flirting with Stiles.

He smiles at him almost shyly, and Stiles smiles back, but then looks down at their papers, flushing lightly. Danny licks his lips nervously and picks up his pen again. He needs to stop that. Just because Stiles isn’t entirely straight doesn’t mean he can ruin the beginning of a friendship they’re having by crushing on him.

The doorbell rings about half an hour later, just when they’re putting the finishing touches to their project. It’s Stiles’s dad, still in uniform, and when Danny and Stiles walk downstairs he’s apologizing to Danny’s mom for not having had the time to get changed.

“Don’t worry about it,” she says with a smile. “Come in, dinner’s almost ready.”

***

Dinner is kind of awkward, and Danny prays to God that he doesn’t ever have to witness anything like this ever again. It’s not even that his mom and Stiles’s dad don’t get along, not really, they’re just both so uncomfortable it makes Danny want to cringe. Even Sarah looks like she’d rather be anywhere but here, although Danny suspects that she’s the one who put this idea into their mother’s head somehow.

The Sheriff gets a call during dessert and has to excuse himself ad go back to work, because apparently they’re still understaffed and there’s some kind of emergency half-way across town. He shakes everyone’s hand politely before leaving, and Danny hears Stiles sigh of relief when the front door finally closes.

“Let’s agree to never let something like that happen ever again,” Stiles whispers to him as they clear up the table. “That was almost as horrible as that one time two years ago when Scott and I tried to set dad up with his mom.”

“Agreed,” Danny whispers back, then smiles at his mother’s curious look.

“If you boys want to watch a movie when you’re done studying, you can use the living room,” she tells them. “I think I’m going to turn in early tonight.”

She looks kind of defeated, and Danny puts his plate down on the kitchen counter and moves in to give her a quick hug. When he lets go, she smiles softly at him and ruffles his hair. Danny lets her, but still rolls his eyes for good measure.

A little bit later, Stiles and him end up rewatching both Iron Man movies, because it had been a while, and besides, Robert Downey Jr is a valid argument in any situation.

They nit-pick over some details, knowing exactly when to shut up to hear the best Tony Stark lines. It’s kind of strange to listen to Stiles wax poetic on both Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr, and he wonders if Stiles always talks so freely or if it’s just because he knows Danny knows, now.

It feels comfortable, and when Stiles yawns and leans a bit more against his side, Danny almost wraps his arm around Stiles’s shoulders. He stops just in time, and instead puts his arm over the couch backseat. Stiles settles against him, and Danny takes a deep breath to calm his nerves. 

Stiles isn’t flirting with him, he tells himself. Stiles’s flirting is anything but _subbtle_ , he knows that, the whole school knows that. Stiles’s flirting is all grand gestures and loud talk and self-consciously delivered pick-up lines. It’s not quiet laughter and comfortable silence and stealthy snuggling.

Stiles throws his head back when he laughs at the TV, long throat bared and inviting, his too-short hair tickling Danny’s arm, and Danny can’t take his eyes off him. Well, fuck, he’s starting to fall for him.

***

Friday dinners at the Mahealanis become a thing, somehow, after that. Without Stiles’s father though. Stiles comes over after school and they vaguely study for the classes they have in common, Danny’s mom prepares some Hawaiian specialty or other for dinner, and then Danny and Stiles watch movies together. Sarah joins them when they put on The Princess Bride, but most of the time it’s just the two of them.

They grow more and more comfortable with each other, and their good byes on the porch grow more and more awkward as Danny has to restrain himself not to kiss Stiles, not to ruin their friendship.

As a distraction from his newly forming feelings for Stiles, Danny does his research. He looks up things on the internet, but that’s not the most reliable source. He probably picks up more info listening to the strange conversations his friends keep having in the middle of the high school hallways, watching their behavior when they seem to forget he’s here. There are too many things, too many clues for him to keep burying his head in the sand.

From the looks he gets from Lydia, he’s pretty sure she knows he’s onto them, but she doesn’t say anything. The others all seem completely oblivious. 

Finals come and go, and the whole gang decides to celebrate by going to the beach. They pile up in Jackson’s Porsche and Stiles’s Jeep, all nine of them because Scott and Allison are tentatively back together, and head for the coast.

They drive to a small secluded beach, hidden between rock formations, following Lydia’s directions. The place is lovely and most importantly empty, and Danny automatically decides he’s going to come back here during the rest of summer to do some surfing.

They all start stripping to their swimsuits, dropping their clothes on the sand, and Danny follows their lead with an easy smile until he notices that Stiles is still rummaging through his Jeep. Leaving his t-shirt with his shoes somewhere near Isaac’s discarded clothes, Danny walks back to the cars.

“What are you doing?” he asks, leaning against Jackson’s Porsche.

“Getting, _nurrrgh_ , this!” Stiles grunts, then finally succeeds in dragging out a parasol from where it was stuck under the backseat. “Because unlike some people,” he looks pointedly at Danny, then avoids his eyes, “some of us don’t have a very sun-tolerant skin.”

Danny nods, his eyes wandering on Stiles’s pale neck. He takes the parasol from Stiles so that he can kick off his shoes, and they walk together on the beach. Stiles drops his bag on a small rock near the pile of clothing and beach towels and they plant the parasol in the sand. 

Stiles gives him a small, almost shy look as he plays with the hem of his shirt.

“Come on,” Danny smiles, “it’s not as if I’ve never seen you in the locker room.”

He nudges Stiles’s shoulder playfully, and Stiles smiles back, tugs his shirt over his head and shoves it on the sand. Danny doesn’t know why Stiles looks so embarrassed, he has nothing to be ashamed of. Okay, his chest isn’t as muscular as Danny’s, or Scott’s, or Jackson’s, but he’s more wiry than skinny, and Danny catches himself admiring the view. 

When he looks up, Stiles is giving him a surprised, shy look and his cheeks are slightly pinker than before. Danny tries to shrug it off with an embarrassed half-smile. He picks up a conversation about Batman comics they’ve had a few days ago to break the silence while Stiles diligently puts on sunscreen, and it soon turns into friendly banter about the merits of the different Robins.

When Stiles starts contorting, trying to spread sunscreen on his back, Danny doesn’t even think. He just grabs the tube from Stiles’s hand and pours some in his hand, then starts rubbing Stiles’s back. Stiles falls silent. He’s tense under Danny’s hands, so Danny uses a few massaging tricks he learned from his ex, and soon Stiles relaxes. Danny lets his hands wander even after the last of the sunscreen’s been absorbed by Stiles’s pale skin.

When he slides his hands around Stiles’s waist, lets his fingers brush against his sides, Stiles makes the smallest noise in his throat, and leans back against him.

“You have to stop doing that,” he says, softly.

Danny’s hands still on Stiles’s skin, and he leans over Stiles’s shoulder to look at him. Stiles’s eyes are closed, his lips slightly parted, and he raises his hands to put them over Danny’s on his hips. He doesn’t pry them off, though.

“Why?” Danny asks in a whisper, close against Stiles’s ear. His chest is tightening with hope and fear at the same time.

“Because I’m falling for you, and I really don’t want to ruin our friendship with my stupid feelings?” Stiles says, opening his eyes and looking pleadingly at Danny.

Danny steps forward, pressing his chest against Stiles’s back.

“Your feelings aren’t stupid,” he tells him.

The angle is awkward but the kiss is easy. Stiles swirls in his hands, turning around to wrap his arms around Danny’s shoulders and fist a hand in his hair. Their lips move slowly together, tongues darting out to play, and Stiles makes a strangled noise when they part.

“Come on,” Danny says, taking Stiles’s hand in his. “They’re all waiting for us.”

Stiles laughs as they run across the beach and into the ocean, splashing water all over their friends. They all know, they all saw, and though some of them look honestly surprised and Jackson glares at little bit at Stiles like he always glares at Danny’s boyfriends, no one asks questions. Lydia smiles at him and Scott high-fives Stiles with a goofy grin, then Erica jumps on him to try and pry his head under the water. There’s laughter, and water splashing in every direction. This is officially a good day, he decides as he presses a kiss to Stiles’s salty lips.

That’s probably why they end up getting attacked by a man-eating mermaid.

Danny can’t quite take his eyes off its mangled body floating in the water once the wolves are done with it. When he finally does, he meets Jackson’s apprehensive eyes, notices the worried line on his forehead and the way his jaw is set tight.

“So, um,” Stiles says, taking his hand and entwining their fingers. “We have a confession to make.”


End file.
